


The White Eye of Emeritus

by TheVelvetUndergrowth



Category: Ghost (Sweden Band)
Genre: Gen, Headcanon, Mentions of Sexism, The white eye is not (always) hereditary, Worldbuilding, mentions of body horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:28:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26862175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheVelvetUndergrowth/pseuds/TheVelvetUndergrowth
Summary: This piece comes from a lengthy headcanon I posted on Tumblr for Emeritober2020. Basically my take on the origins of the white eye that each of the Papas possess as well as how the 'Emeritus' title has changed since its inception all those centuries ago.Strap in folks, I'm about to give you all a demon pope history lesson!
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	The White Eye of Emeritus

Of all the traits that each of the abbey’s unholy popes possessed, there are none as unifying and diabolical as that of **The White Eye**. Always on the left eye, always as pale as the full moon, it is the ultimate symbol for which one reveals their unyielding devotion to **Lucifer** and all the **Great Demons** that serve under **Them** , and it is through this property that each Papa is granted the ability to perform black magic in our mortal realm.

It was a gift first earned by the original Papa Emeritus Nihil back during the Middle Ages, after the sacking of their first abbey in Florence. Even after the surviving Siblings of Sin were left without a home or leader (their first elected pope having been captured and subsequently burned at the stake), his devotion to the art of black magic and natural leadership skills played a significant role in helping the survivors make their exodus to the north. Upon settling in Linköping he found himself powerful enough to attempt a direct contact with **The Olde One** , asking for **Them** to grant him the magic of Hell itself as a means of assuring his people’s prosperity in this new land.

His request was granted. He used his magic given to him by **The Eye** to summon the first ghouls into our Earthly plane, and with their superior strength and elemental powers they helped construct the Unholy Abbey of Linköping for the Siblings of Sin to reside and worship in. With the further aid of these ghouls alongside the skills of many witches, he then weaved a dark mist to shield the abbey from discovery by those who fought for God, granting access only to those who wished to serve the Will of Satan. Those Christians back in Florence had mockingly named their previous pope “Papa Emeritus” after his forced retirement, so Nihil chose to keep the name to show how even death cannot stop one so devoted to the devil, and thus the unholy title of all future Papas had been born!

Now as to how **The Eye** can be earned, well… this is where things get complicated.

For a long time, there were no consistent guidelines for electing someone as the next Papa. Some were able to perform either the same or similar contact rituals that the original Emeritus 0 was able to do, those of which were always incredibly dangerous and could violently kill the seeker attempting spiritual communication with Hell. There were even others that had arrived already possessing this white eye by some chance supernatural event, having instinctively searched out the Unholy Abbey through supernatural guidance, although these cases are significantly rarer.

As for gaining **The Eye** via rituals, the only criteria they had back in the olden days were that the person needed to have lived and studied in the abbey for at least 10 years and completed seminary, be highly skilled in the art of black magic, and needed to possess a penis ( _The Serpent with Which They Could Use to Deceive_ ). Unfortunately, sexism in regards to leadership roles affected even the protofemenist teachings of the Satanic Church for the longest time. Nowadays the abbey is sure to teach of the multiple women & trans men of the clergy who most likely did possess the abilities needed to become Papa, but were not allowed to due to such needlessly patriarchal "rules."

Well to be fair, there were two Papas elected that were not cis men: an intersex person and a woman, those being the original Papa Emeritus Secondo and Terzo respectively. Emeritus II was "traditionally masculine" enough to be allowed an attempt at the contact, while Emeritus III had come to them already possessing **The Eye** , and thus they could not ignore her rightful title (although they did still refer to her through he/him pronouns, stubborn bastards....).

And that's how it was for much of the abbey's history. Emeritus was merely a title to denote whichever random person was lucky enough to achieve it, nothing more. However, everything changed during the early 1800’s when a single idea dawned on the current Papa of the time. The previous two Papas before him had both happened to be his father and grandfather, so if that were the case, would that mean that the power of **The Eye** could be _inherited_?

Testing his Lamarckist hypothesis, he waited until both his sons had come of age and then forcibly subjected them to the contact ritual under the implication that their bloodline would automatically grant them access to this magic, which caused one to die horribly and the other to successfully be gifted with the coveted white eye. Through the combination of this “successful discovery” alongside a desperation to reclaim the earthly magic that was starting to disappear as well as the backing of an upper clergy becoming more and more corrupted with each passing decade, the title Emeritus had been officially morphed into a dynasty.

Perhaps there was some truth in the inheritable properties of magic, since more Papas were made from that starting lineage. Yet when put into perspective, the costs of this practice were truly far too great to justify the means.

Dozens upon dozens of teenage boys were subjected to these premature contact rituals and suffered disgusting, needless deaths at the hands of their fathers, all in the hopes of finding the one “worthy” heir to the Papacy. Harems, which were once simply a source of pleasure for a Papa, became a mandatory method of producing enough sons. These women were impregnated so often that many ended up dying from birth complications, and those who were able to successfully give birth either had to raise their daughters all on their own or risk seeing their sons bodies be twisted and shredded beyond recognition after an unsuccessful ritual. 

Our current day Nihil had four brothers before him; three whom he never knew, and one he was forced to forget. They did prove to be failures after all, so why memorialize them? It truly was nothing short of a miracle that he was able to survive the ritual at such a young age. Once he got **The Eye** and all the magic it provided him, along with the aid of one Sister of Sin allied to his cause, he wasted no time in usurping his wicked father. To further emphasize his separation from his father's legacy, he reset his title back to Emeritus 0 as a symbol of how he was going to lead the Satanic Church into a new Golden Age, one where he would never subject his heirs to such needless destruction.

Ironic how he ended up accidentally achieving what his own father always dreamed of: three sons that proved themselves apt enough to survive the ritual and earn **The Eye**. Granted, he did forbid his children from attempting the contact until they had fully developed their knowledge of black magic and had completed seminary, but it is quite intriguing how he managed to produce this many heirs to the Papacy in such a short span of time.

Could an outside force had helped him in some way, possibly enhancing the heritability of his magic with supernatural means for the sake of their achieving their own ends?

…

Of course not! Who could possibly do something like that?

**Author's Note:**

> And for anyone who's curious, Copia was born with The Eye.


End file.
